Knowledge is Pain
by Vega777
Summary: Emmanda is a little girl with a very special mind, a mind that FOWL will do anything to get their hands on. Where will she go when it seems she has nowhere left to turn? Rating may go up, depending. This is my first ever fanfiction, please R&R!
1. Prolouge

Hi! I want to thank you all in advance for taking a look at my work. I'm going to try my best on it. Please help me by reviewing, thank you!

SHUSH and everything else from the Darkwing universe is property of Disney.

Emmanda, Hardvaark university, and Emmie's family belong to me, though.

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**Knowledge is Pain Prolouge**

This is the story of a girl.

This is a story of villans and heros, of secret agents and organizations, of murder and sacrifice, of loss and of gain.

As you can guess, this is no ordinary girl.

Emmanda Sesquare was a duckling born on October 23rd to two loving parents. Both were scientists for SHUSH, an international secret organization protecting the world from evil.

Now, what has this got to do with little Emmanda? Quite a bit, unfortunately, for Emmanda was born special.

No, not that kind of special, quite the opposite in fact.

Emmanda was born with two rare and special gifts: a picture-perfect memory and an unnaturaly high IQ. By the age of three she was enrolled into a Harrvark University, and by age six she recieved a PHD, something that usually takes eight or more years to accomplish, in Nanotechnology. Also, Emmanda's perfect memory made her exellent in backing up the blueprints of every SHUSH device and invention. Despite the fact that Emmanda's college work, coupled with looking over/copying blueprints and helping her parents with their inventions, Emmanda lived a fairly happy life.

This story begins on Emmanda's seventh birthday, the day her world fell apart.


	2. A Day to Remember

First chapter's finally up! Whoo!

As usual, Darkwing universe characters and things belong to Disney. Emmie, her parents, this story, and other stuff I made up belong to me.

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**Chapter one: A day to Remeber**

The story begins in labratory 13 at a certain secret underground labratory run by a certain secret organization.

The scientists in the lab were gathered around a steel table, waiting for something....

"Suprise! Happy birthday Emmanda!" Everyone shouted as a small duckling with violet eyes and dirty blonde hair that curled at the ends entered the room. Emmanda gasped and pretended to be suprised, even though everyone knew it was almost impossible to keep anything a secret from her for long. Still, it seemed polite to act suprised, so she obliged. After the customary greetings Emmanda ran up to her parents who were sitting at the head of the table.

"Happy Birthday Emmanda!" Shane Sesquare, a handsome duck with teal eyes and dirty blonde hair, exclaimed as he lifted his daughter up onto his lap. Beside them Maria Sesquare, a lovely duck in her early thirties, handed Emmanda her first gift. Emmanda, unlike most little children, carefully opened the gift in her lap. Inside were a pair of red bows, which her mother took and carefully clipped into Emmanda's hair.

Emmanda wondered about this gift. Usually her parents gave her presents relating more to her scientific endeavers. In fact, all of her presents since she was old enough to talk had been science related.

She felt the bows as Maria said "Emmanda, these bows were mine when I was your age, and my mother's before me, and your father and I thought that now that you're seven they should be passed down to you, what do you think Emmanda?" Emanda jumped off of her father's lap and hugged both of her parents. "I love them, thank you both so much!"

Her other presents were more like she expected, ranging from new test tubes to a chemical she'd needed for an experiment with liquid explosives. Ah, being a child prodigy does indeed have its plusses. However, Emmanda sometimes wished that she were a normal girl. For one thing, she might have friends her own age. She'd met a couple of the other scientists' children but they'd had little in common, especially since her parents forbade her to watch cartoons or play video games because "They rot your mind, and you have lots of more important things to do than that."

Emmanda didn't really mind though. They did have a point about that since Emmanda WAS, because of her perfect memory, a living backup for every SHUSH blueprint and schematic.

After all the presents were opened and all of the cake eaten, all of the scientists save the Sesquares returned to their various duties and experiments. Emmanda would've liked to continue with her own experiments, but her parents promised her one last surprise when they got home. Emmanda was pretty sure she had deduced what it was already, but she didn't let on about it since her parents thought that they'd been soo careful not to slip up this time. So after gathering up all of her presents they left for home, blissfully unaware of what lay ahead.

* * *

Meanwhile, at SHUSH headquarters in St. Canard....

J. Gander Hooter sighed deeply. How could this much paperwork have accumulated on his desk in so little time? Then again, considering all of the red tape SHUSH had to wade through he was almost surprised that only 6 large stacks had accumulated while he was on his lunch break. Just as he was getting started on filling out the paperwork, agent Grizzlykoff burst into the room.

"Sir! Ve haff just gotten someting off of one of the intelligence reports!" Hooter, normally a patient man, sighed in exazsperation.

"Agent Grizzlykoff, can't this wait? I'm very busy at the moment! Just file it and I'll get to it eventually."

"But, but sir!" Grizzlykoff stammered "Dis ees important! It ees a matter of life und dieing!"

Hooter was unphased. "So is half of this paperwork, Grizzlykoff. We are the world's largest secret agency after all. " He then picked up his black pen, intent on tackling the largest of the stacks.

"But sir, dey vere talking about a certain little gerl."

In shock Hooter dropped his pen, there was only one girl they could have spoken about to cause this much of an uproar. "Grizzlykoff, close the door."

After Grizzlykoff had done so, Hooter got up and started pacing in front of his desk. "What was heard?" he inquired of the russian bear.

"I'm afraid ve haff not heard much, sir, but dey haff mentioned her by name, und ve belief dat dey haff plans to be capturing her, sir."

Hooter sat back down at his desk and put his head in his hands. He had dreaded that this day would come. How could they have found out about Emmanda, her direct involvement with SHUSH was one of their most closely guarded secrets! Only Hooter, agent Grizzlykoff, and a select few of their most trusted personell knew what she had in her mind.

Finally Hooter said "Do we know where they obtained that information?" At this, Grizzlykoff simply shook his head.

"Sir, it would seem dat ve are hafink a traitor in our middle, but ve are hafink no luck in singling out anyvone."

Hooter picked up his phone and while dialing told Grizzlykoff "Go quickly and assemble a group, I'll try and catch the Sesquares at lab 13. Let's just pray that they haven't left yet."

* * *

At that moment, the Sesquares were just turning into their neighborhood.

Emmanda looked listlessly out of the window, car rides had always bored her. She saw a group of kids playing on a playground and wondered what it was like to be one. She had seen normal kids before, and could study their strange and erratic behavior, but she couldn't understand why they did the things they did. Especially toys. What was the point of carrying a piece of cloth and stuffing made to vaugly resemble an animal? Still, they always looked like they were enjoying themselves....

"Honey, did you hear what I said?"

Emmanda looked up. "Yes mother, my ears haven't stopped working yet. You said that Dr. Mertz needed my assistance with his experiment tomorrow. This is the third time you've said it. Also, it'll be 5:15 at the sound of the beep... beeep. " Emmanda giggled, knowing her mother didn't like when she did that.

As the Sesquare's car pulled into the driveway of their small suburban home, her mother turned and looked at Emmanda. "Emmanda, no one likes a show off." And with that they all got out of the car. A chill wind suddenly picked up, and everyone shivered slightly.

Maria looked around and said "I suddenly have this odd feeling, like something bad's going to happen." As they reached the door to their house they found that it was unlocked. "That's odd" said Shane, "I could've sworn that I locked the door as we left this morning."

Emmanda thought back to that morning, had he locked it? Yes, yes she remembered him locking it. Something very strange was going on.

"Father, you did lock it, I remember. Something's wrong, maybe we should go back to the lab."Emmanda shied away from the door as her father opened it. "Nonsense" he said "Our neighbors must have needed to borrow something, they do have a spare key for that." Emmanda wasn't too sure about that, the neighbors usually left a note when they had borrowed something. Still, she could be wrong.

Emmanda followed her parents inside. Once inside Emmanda noticed something on the ground, something that most people would never notice, let alone think about.

It was a white feather, one she was sure didn't belong to anyone in her family.

"Momma, there's something wrong, we need to go, now." Emmanda tugged on her parents labcoats trying to get them to go with her.

"Oh, I tink it's far too late for that."

Everyone turned around to look at the door as it slowly closed and from behind it stood a well-dressed rooster, his metal beak gleaming.

"Well well well" said the rooster, as henchmen came out from behind various furniture, "Look 'oo we 'ave 'ere...."


	3. Sacrifice

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone? Sorry for the hiatus, and so early in the story too. I was really busy with schoolwork/my grandmother dying/summer job.

A big thank you to everyone who commented!

You guys rock.

Out loud.

I'm going to try really hard to update more frequently.

As always, Darkwing universe characters and things belong to Disney.

Emmie, her parents, this story, and other stuff I made up belong to me.

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Chapter two: Capture

The Sesquares rushed to the front door, only to find more eggmen waiting for them on the other side.

The Sesquares moved closer together as The Fowl eggmen closed in.

Steelbeak sauntered into the circle that the eggmen were creating around the Sesquares and smirked at them.

As he advanced, Maria Sesquare picked up Emmanda as Shane wrapped an arm protectively around his wife.

Emmanda started chewing on her right pointer finger, a nervous tic she developed when she needed to think under pressure, as she tried to think a way out of this trap.

She started scanning the eggmen barrier looking for any way they could break through them to escape, but so far it looked unpromising.

Steelbeak cleared his throat to make sure he had the trio's undivided attention.

"...What do you want from us?" Shane asked.

"A little birdie told us you two 'ave a very special little girl, which FOWL high command is very interested in. I been sent 'ere to offer an 'invitation' for 'er to join us, and I wont take no for an answer."

Steelbeak reached a hand out and patted Emmanda's head, causing her to cringe and her mother to back up as far into Shane as she could without pushing him into the eggmen behind.

Shane tighened his grip on her and glaring a Steelbeak said in a deceptively calm voice "I don't know what your talking about, there's nothing special about my girl other than the fact she's mine. Your information must be flawed, or you have the wrong family."

Steelbeak shrugged. "Not my problem. Besides, we got dis info from a very reliable source. Either way, we're takin' 'er."

Emmanda grabbed her father's arm and whispered something into his ear. Apparently he didn't approve of the plan she thought up, because he shook his head and told her it'd be okay, like she'd just told him she was scared.

Steelbeak smiled smugly as he continued, saying "Now, we can do dis da easy way or da hard way, give me da munchkin."

Shane leaned down, looking directly into Steelbeak's eyes as he did so, and said "I choose hard."

With that, Shane stood back up holding a small gun he'd had hidden in an ankle holster for such an occasion and put his hand on Emmanda's head, secretly pressing a tiny tracking device under a bow in case the worst happened. Before the eggmen knew what was happening Shane shot two and pushed his wife and daughter through the temporary break in the defences towards the door, which was still open.

Suddenly the eggmen opened fire on him and crimson stains began to form on his chest as he shoved them onto the porch. Maria and Emmanda watched in shock as they spread until Shane yelled "Don't let thim get you!" and slammed the door as Maria ran down the street.

Shane staggered and fell against the door, sliding down to a sitting position against it. He clutched his chest, finding it harder and harder to breathe. Meanwhile, Steelbeak was preoccupied with reprimanding his underlings for firing without orders.

"What were yous thinkin'!?! You coulda hit da kid! I oughtta shoot alla ya... well, waddaya waitin' foor, an invitation? Go after dem!"

Shane was pushed out of the way by the eggmen as they went out the door in pursuit of Maria and Emmanda, but Steelbeak stopped and leaned over him. Shane tried to lift his gun, but Steelbeak slapped it out of his hand and picked shane up by his collar. "You t'ink you're a big hero, huh? You din't stop me, yous just made me mad." With that Steelbeak dropped him, noticing a bloodstain on his cuff. As he walked out after the eggmen he muttered "My dry cleaner's gonna love dis...."

Alone in the house, on the floor, unable to move, and in terrible pain, Shane's mind clouded as he slowly lost conciousness....

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As the rescue team was assembling and filling out forms 103a through 67.4zk Hooter grabbed his phone and dialed the Darkwing duck hotline, as the miniquack which they usually sent to Darkwing was being fixed after it suffered a "mysterious accident" at the hands of Grizzlykoff a few days prior.

It rang.

It rang again.

And again.

Finally, frome the other end came "I am the terror that flaps in the night!"

Hooter started to say "Darkwing, we need your he..."

The voice continued on the other end "I am the telemarketer that calls at dinnertime! I AM DARKWING DUCK!!! ...who can't come to the phone right now, so, if you'd please leave the criminal's name and crime after the beep I'll be sure to dispense some justice to the jackanape as soon as possible. Have a nice day! *beep*"

Hooter looked at the phone for a second before putting it back up to his ear and continuing "Darkwing, we need your help. Three of our best scientists are in grave danger and we have a Fowl communication intercepted that gives us reason to believe that they'll make their move today. Come quickly Darkwing!" With that, Hooter hung up and clutched his head.

Of all the times for Darkwing to be away, this was most likely the worst.

If FOWL got what was inside Emmanda's head... he didn't want to think of the outcome.

Hooter picked up the phone again, this time to call Grizzlykoff who was heading the rescue team.

"Agent Grizzlykoff, status report."

"Ve are still filling out forms, sur."

"To heck with the forms, I'll fill them out! There are lives at stake here, Grizzlykoff!!!"

"U-understood, sur."

"Good. I've left a message on Darkwing's machine, but there's no telling if he'll get it in time, so your team is probabbly on their own."

"Sur, ve do not need that loose cannon rule-breaking duck! Ve vill rescue them vith good old-fashioned procedure."

"Time and again we've relied on Darkwing Duck, that crusader might just be our only hope, but since we have yet to reach him then we must do our best in the meantime. Good luck agents."


End file.
